c,
in their usual places. The monarch now perceived that only one opinion
prevailed on his past conduct. He repeated therefore to his nobles all
he had said to the Chief Pontiff, and his future reign was unstained by
cruelty or oppression." Malcolm's Persia,--M.]

[Footnote 73: Synesius tells this story of Carinus; and it is much more
natural to understand it of Carus, than (as Petavius and Tillemont
choose to do) of Probus.]

The threats of Carus were not without effect. He ravaged Mesopotamia,
cut in pieces whatever opposed his passage, made himself master of
the great cities of Seleucia and Ctesiphon, (which seemed to have
surrendered without resistance,) and carried his victorious arms beyond
the Tigris. [74] He had seized the favorable moment for an invasion. The
Persian councils were distracted by domestic factions, and the greater
part of their forces were detained on the frontiers of India. Rome and
the East received with transports the news of such important advantages.
Flattery and hope painted, in the most lively colors, the fall of
Persia, the conquest of Arabia, the submission of Egypt, and a lasting
deliverance from the inroads of the Scythian nations. [75] But the reign
of Carus was destined to expose the vanity of predictions. They were
scarcely uttered before they were contradicted by his death; an event
attended with such ambiguous circumstances, that it may be related in a
letter from his own secretary to the praefect of the city. "Carus," says
he, "our dearest emperor, was confined by sickness to his bed, when a
furious tempest arose in the camp. The darkness which overspread the sky
was so thick, that we could no longer distinguish each other; and the
incessant flashes of lightning took from us the knowledge of all that
passed in the general confusion. Immediately after the most violent clap
of thunder, we heard a sudden cry that the emperor was dead; and it soon
appeared, that his chamberlains, in a rage of grief, had set fire to the
royal pavilion; a circumstance which gave rise to the report that Carus
was killed by lightning. But, as far as we have been able to investigate
the truth, his death was the natural effect of his disorder." [76]

[Footnote 74: Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 250. Eutropius, ix. 18. The
two Victors.]

[Footnote 75: To the Persian victory of Carus I refer the dialogue of
the Philopatris, which has so long been an object of dispute among
the learned. But to explain and j